Recent years have seen explosive growth in digital media. More content is always becoming available, and new systems and techniques for accessing digital streams or files are constantly being developed. Consumers now expect immediate access to a wealth of digital content from virtually any location, and at any time.
Challenges can arise, however, in supplying media content in certain settings. In particular, it can be a challenge to provide a smooth user experience when working with certain types of “offline” media sources. Certain types of video recorders, for example, are able to provide placeshifted media streams to client devices even when access to the Internet or a similar wide area network (WAN) is unavailable. These streams may be provided, for example, over a local area network (e.g., an IEEE 802.11 “WIFI” wireless LAN) that can be put in place to allow communication over a relatively short distance even if Internet or other wide area network access is not available. These sorts of devices may be useful in providing media streams while traveling (e.g., in an airplane, car or other vehicle) where access to large amounts of media content or other data is desirable.
It is desirable to create devices, systems and processes to improve access to stored or streaming media content even when the device supplying that content is operating in an offline mode, or when a WAN connection is not otherwise available. Other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background section.